Hearing my alarm clock that early after a night of astrophotography was nearly torcher, but one peak out my tent of the light creeping over the eastern horizon was the mental cup of coffee I needed. The soft red and orange light that bathed the mountains around me was incredible. Again, I found myself running around taking way too many pictures trying to capture what I was seeing. After the sun had come over the horizon, the feeling of being tired crept back, and soon I was back in my tent catching a few extra Zs.
It didn't take long at all for the sun to blast out the desert before me with its bright light and heat. I stuck around as long as I could capturing my experience, but I had other plans for my day that I was pretty excited about. Not more than a few miles away was a hot spring I wanted to check out for a quick soak before heading up to the top of Steen Mountain for a hike. It being over 100 degrees out, it was no surprise that I had the hot spring to myself. Something I think many people forget about is how our bodies feel temperatures differences relative to themselves. So, if you are hot because the air around you is hot and you get into cold water, you get cold in the water, and the air feels even hotter. The inverse is true too, that spring was really hot making the ambient air around me feel so much cooler than before.
Refreshed from my soak, I started my journey to the top of the mountain, but getting up there was going to take much longer than I expected. I had to nearly drive all the way around to the back side of the mountain before I was able to even think about driving up. I didn't mind the drive though, I find the desert landscape so beautiful and enjoy being in it, but that's easy to say while blasting AC! The Steens Mountain Wilderness is stunningly beautiful; It's one of my favorite places in Oregon. Once at the top, you can see the evidence of glaciers carving their way to the bottom cutting and ripping themselves down. If you're not afraid of heights, there are also many opportunities for some magnificent cliffside views along the way.
Once to the top and at the end of Oregon's highest road, I started my hike back down to Wildhorse Lake. I got there just at the right time, as I was hiking down, everyone else was hiking up, giving me the lake nearly to myself. As I walked in, a giant cloud came over the area providing some much-needed shade, but graciously let in beautiful light when I was ready to start taking pictures. I took a quick dip in the lake then moved on towards the other end of the valley to see what was hiding from me. What I found blew me away, the scene before me felt like I was in the Alps or New Zeland or something. I had no Idea that this sort of landscape was in Oregon. Initially, I had planned on making camp on the top of the mountain somewhere but opted to rush back down to the playa for one more night on the desert floor.
